"Who would have thought Porsche would go electric?" Porsche boss hails Taycan's "overwhelming success"

When Porsche introduced the Cayenne SUV just over 20 years ago the world was knocked off its axis for many devotees of Zuffenhausen’s finest.

But that was only a small tremor relative to the seismic disruption that accompanied the arrival of Porsche’s first pure electric vehicle, the Taycan, in 2019.

Previewed by the Mission E concept (unveiled at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show) the Taycan sedan, followed by the Taycan Cross Turismo wagon, represented a sizeable gamble for Porsche, with even the decision makers around the company's board table in Stuttgart not certain of the car’s likely acceptance.

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But, when asked recently about the model’s market performance, Porsche Cars Australia CEO and Managing Director, Daniel Schmollinger told CarsGuide, “Three years ago we launched the Taycan, which was first in the world. Who would have thought Porsche would go electric? And the success of the car was absolutely overwhelming.”

To the end of October 2023 Porsche Australia sold 455 Taycans, up more than 10 per cent on 2022 and outperforming its Panamera internal-combustion stablemate by almost seven units to one.

And if the current monthly run rate continues to the end of the year, the Taycan is on track to comfortably exceed the model’s bumper first full-year sales number of 531 in 2021.

As Mr Schmollinger says, “Here, where you would think Australia is not an electric car market, people are more into V8s than anything else. But the pick-up of the Taycan was absolutely overwhelming, We reached very quickly a very high number in Taycan.” he said.

And Porsche’s EV roster is set to expand further with the early 2024 arrival of a pure-electric version of the brand’s best seller, the Macan mid-size SUV.

Porsche’s stated aim is to make the Macan EV “the sportiest model in the segment”, like the ground-breaking Taycan running a high-performance 800-volt architecture as well as a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive capability, the latter courtesy of an electric motor on each axle.

Unlike the Taycan, however, which rides on the ‘J1’ EV matrix shared with the Audi e-tron GT, the new Macan will be underpinned by the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE), again developed jointly by Audi and Porsche.